The debut EP from Newsted, called Metal, sold approximately 6,200 copies in the US in its first week to enter the Billboard 200 chart at #62. Metal was released on January 8th exclusively via iTunes. The physical CD is available for pre-order at the official Newsted store here.

Newsted spoke to BraveWords recently about the Metal EP:

“These songs are old-school metal. I went back to what I know the best and what I spent the most hours of my life doing," Newsted explains to BraveWords. "That’s what we recorded on this. It’s an in your face, raw, present kind of music. I’ve been working on the lyrics for many years, they have a lot of meaning and each one tells a story. I’m really proud of that part and I’m looking forward to people seeing the lyrics again. I haven’t really been able to expose that kind of stuff out into the world since the FLOTSAM days. These are far different than the Flotsam lyrics, I’ve come a long way. Each song has its own thing as I see what’s around me. They very much are addressing issues of the world today.”